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Course Preparation To-Do List

Gotchas #

• Synchronize Crowdmark at end of first week.
• When requesting WebOption, make sure that the recorded sections avoid holiday Mondays.

Schedule Setup #

• Figure out the duration of the semester: https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/registrar/academic-dates
• Put the Week-by-Week in to Google Calendar.
  • Disable all calendars except Teaching so that events are automatically created in that calendar.
  • Make note of any cancelled days, such as Thanksiving.
• Put teaching schedule in to Google Calendar. Timetable: https://utoronto.sharepoint.com/sites/utsc-ClassroomLocatorDashboard
  • Choose “Export Data” to get copy-able list of courses.
  • Create one event per class and duplicate it.
  • Repeat 13 times and delete the occurence in Reading Week.
• Add your office hours, usually after a class.
• Setup the docstrip commands \WeekOneMonday etc.
• Copy that data over to all relevant courses.

Quercus Setup #

• Request that multisection courses get merged.

  Template e-mail.

  Hi Quercus Support, Kevin, Summer, and UTSC Records,

  I’m going to be coordinating MAT A29 and B41 in the fall. At present, these are multiple sections for each course.

  Could you please merge them on Quercus and eMarks for me? That is, please merge all the A29s and, seperately, merge all the B41s.

  Thanks for your time.

• Setup Dicussion / FAQ forum to require names.
  • Make sure the discussion is non-anonymous: “Off: student names and profile pictures will be visible to other members of this course.”
  • Set default sort order: “Newest First”

  <p>Have a question about the course? Post it below! The course team checks this forum regularly and will respond as soon as we can.</p>
  <p>A few tips to keep things running smoothly:</p>
  <ul>
      <li><strong>Be clear.</strong> Try to write your question so others can understand it easily. That way we can give you a useful answer right away, without too much back-and-forth.</li>
      <li><strong>Be respectful.</strong> Keep the tone polite and civil. Remember that posts here are not anonymous.</li>
      <li><strong>Check first.</strong> Someone else might have already asked the same thing. Take a quick look before posting.</li>
  </ul>
  <p>This forum is here to help you, and chances are, if you&rsquo;re wondering about something, others are too!</p>

• Put graphic syllabi as Quercus pictures.
• Setup the Navigation menu: Settings > Navigation
  • Announcements
  • Discussions
  • Grades
  • Modules
  • Media Gallery
  • Syllabus
• Create the week-by-week announcements in Quercus.
  • Create blank announcements with tks.
  • Use the announcement copy functionality to migrate them to other courses.
  • Populate them with course-specific date.
• Migrate old recordings.
  • Media Gallery > Video > Actions > Publish > Save
  • Pre-pend “OLD: " to the names of migrated videos.
• Update the Syllabi on the course homepage.

  <p><a class="btn btn-large btn-success" style="width: 80%;" title="title" href="/courses/405948/pages/tutorial-schedule"><span style="font-size: xx-large;"><strong>TA Contact Info and Tutorial Schedule(Starts Week 2)</strong></span></a></p>
  <p><a class="btn btn-large btn-success" style="width: 80%;" title="title" href="/courses/405948/files/38810601?location=course_syllabus_405948&amp;wrap=1"><span style="font-size: xx-large;"><strong>Course Schedule (PDF)</strong></span></a></p>

Weekly Modules Setup #

• Create the weekly modules.
• Populate them with lecture notes, tutorial activities, etc.
  • When posting tutorial activities, there are multiple files: WORKSHEET, SLIDES, SOLUTIONS. It is helpful to bulk upload to Quercus and use its file manager to post them to modules.
  • Schedule the SOLUTIONS: Pull up your Google Calendar in Month view, and use Friday at 5pm.
• Publish modules last once everything is uploaded.

Weekly Announcements Setup #

• Create weekly announcements with a placeholder tk.
• Review the week-by-week messages.
• Check for changes in date of Reading Week.
• Update office hours.
• Export to HTML.
• Open up all the accouncement files in vim and all the announcements as tabs in Firefox.
• Vim magic: :%y+ | bde (yank the whole buffer to the clipboard and close the buffer) and @@ or @: to repeat.

TA Information #

• Duplicate the TA information spreadsheets in Google Docs. A29: Fall 2025: TA Information
  • Clear the old data and update dates.
  • Get new rooms: https://utoronto.sharepoint.com/sites/utsc-ClassroomLocatorDashboard
    • Export data to get copy-able rooms and such.
  • Publish to web: File > Share > Publish to Web > Embed
    • Be sure to publish only the Tutorials page.
  • Create a Quercus page with name TA Information.
  • Edit the embedded iframe code to include width="10000" height="10000" and remove loading="lazy".

Software Enviroment #

• Move old courses over to ~/Teaching/Finished/.

• Create new courses.

• Update .bashrc to have current years.

  alias a29='cd /home/pgadey/Work/Teaching/a29-fall-2026/docstrip/'
  alias b41='cd /home/pgadey/Work/Teaching/b41-fall-2026/docstrip/'
  

External Bits and Bobs #

Crowdmark Setup #

• Create a module Crowdmark
• Add “External Tool” > Crowdmark LTI
• Add Kevin and Irene as uploaders.

WebOption Setup #

• Make sure that the recorded sections avoid holiday Mondays.

• Request that lectures are recorded.

  Template e-mail.

  I’m coordinating MAT A29 and B41 next semester. I’d like to request that the following sections are recorded: MAT A29 LEC 01 MAT B41 LEC 01

  Please set it up so that recordings are posted automatically, and available to student immediately.

  Thanks for your time.

Request Lockers #

• E-mail Kevin and Irene requesting lockers.

  Template e-mail.

  Hi folks!

  This e-mail is probably very early, but here it is.

  I’d like to request storage lockers for MAT A29 and B41 next semester.

  Can you confirm that they’ll be available?

Request FSGs #

• Email Jilani about FSGs.

  Template e-mail.

  Hi Jilani,

  This e-mail is probably very early, but here it is.

  Please organize an FSG for MAT A29.

  It would be very much appreciated. Please let me know if you need any details.

The “Standard” Course #

This is the “standard” or generic course.

Materials Overview #

• Syllabus
• Course Guide / Calendar
• Readings
• Announcements
• Lectures
  • Handouts
  • Slides
• Tutorials
  • Handouts
  • Slides
• Homework
  • Handouts
  • Solutions
• Quizzes
  • Handouts
  • Solutions
• Midterms
  • Practice + Solutions
  • Real + Solutions
  • Deferred + Solutions
• Exam
  • Practice + Solutions
  • Real + Solutions
  • Deferred + Solutions

Materials Detail #

Published: Dec 4, 2023 @ 11:43.
Last Modified: Aug 20, 2026 @ 09:25.

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